FRANK Nouble says he is looking forward to returning to Colchester United and fighting for a place in their starting line-up under Wayne Brown.

The popular forward will be back at the U’s next season, having experienced what was by his own admission a frustrating 2021-22 campaign.

Nouble featured 19 times for the U's under Hayden Mullins in the opening months of the season, more often than not in the number nine role.

But the 30-year-old then suffered a knee injury which sidelined him for nearly two months and then found himself out of the U's starting line-up, leading to him joining Leyton Orient on loan in January.

Nouble is now preparing to return for pre-season with Colchester later this month and is looking forward to playing under new permanent boss Brown.

Gazette:

Nouble said: “I had a meeting with the manager, after he was confirmed on a permanent basis.

“I just wanted to know what my position was really and what I needed to do, to have a chance with the squad.

“He told me that the door is fully open for me.

“He said ‘You’re our player and we look forward to welcoming you to fight for your place’ and that’s all I want to do.

“If you look up and down the country at every level, there’s players who aren’t playing, some of them big names on big contracts and for me, it’s no different either.

Gazette:

“I’ve been at the club for a number of years and done well before.

“It’s a new fresh start and a blank canvas for everyone.

“I’m hoping to hit the ground running, as soon as I get back for pre-season.

“I just feel the manager is a very honest guy.

“He’s very straight forward about how he wants to go about things and I think everyone knows where they stand.

“I think that’s key, especially with an experienced squad when you’re dealing with men who have got their own pressures like looking after their own families, paying bills and so on.”

Gazette:

Nouble joined Leyton Orient on loan with the aim of starting regularly, in League Two.

But Kenny Jackett departed as O’s boss soon after signing the forward and Nouble was restricted to just three league starts, at Brisbane Road.

“It was a very frustrating season,” said Nouble.

“It’s hard to say how I feel about the season just gone, because so many things come into play and there are so many components, to the season.

“I’m very much looking forward to coming back next year with a lot of vengeance in my heart really.

“I feel like at the beginning of the year with Hayden, we all wished him well and success with the team and we thought that we had a good team to go on and do good things.

“But a lot of things didn’t go well for us particularly off the field and that contributed to performances not going to plan.

Gazette:

“So obviously that ended abruptly and I went on loan.

“I thought it was the right thing for me, just to get some fresh air from the club and try something new, whilst still being under contract.

“The chairman (Robbie Cowling) was alright with it and said ‘look, just go out and play some football’ and hopefully we stay up, which was obviously the main thing I wanted.

“But the manager (Kenny Jackett) got sacked after two weeks of my loan, which was another killer blow to me.

Gazette:

“It was a very frustrating year but football is full of up and downs and I can’t dwell on it now.

“I dealt with an injury this year as well which I’ve not dealt with, pretty much my whole career.

"It left me sidelined for pretty much a month and a half and was frustrating.

“But that’s all fine now and cleared up so I’m looking to have a good pre-season and looking forward to going back to Colchester.

“Colchester is a club that’s close to my heart and I’ve really enjoyed my time there, particularly the first two years under John McGreal and Steve Ball.”